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Family Search has a rating of 2.3 stars from 61 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Family Search most frequently mention ancestry com problems. Family Search ranks 55th among Genealogy sites.
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So much great information available, from the records that are ready to be attached, to the collections that are available to search through. Such a wonderful resource. As with any resource, check the actual image against what is on the record page. Sometimes it doesn't match up or the transcription for a location is in the wrong country for example. Regarding the one big collaborative tree, again, validate the source citations to be sure of relationships and ensure that conflation isn't occurring.
Anyone can delete saved proof/evidence or correct lineage in efforts to hijack said lineage for themselves without any recourse for their misguided actions. They can be petty, insecure, and out right fraudulent. It doesn't matter how many times they are corrected or how much concrete proof is offered, they will continue to hijack lineages to makes themselves feel important. This is by far the single worst family tree building site on the internet. Many of them have no DNA testing to prove their claims and refuse to have their DNA tested Wil making full claims against others that have been tested and can provide incontrovertible evidence of their lineage. Then if you try to communicate with anyone about any of it, they can report you for no real offense and the site will terminate your profile. This site is entirely for fake people who stand on other peoples lineage wile posing.
I enjoyed Family Search when I first started using it but it's horrendous that verified, documented family lines can be removed at anyone's whim. It just isn't worth the hassle to argue with people. I know there's a better site run by the Morman's that's more accurate and info can't be readily changed. But only members of the church have access. I would pay to have access to it but it isn't available.
I'll give 3 examples of my frustration,
1: The woman that continually changes my mother's info insisting that she died in NY and that she wasn't my mother. She died in Colorado and most definitely was my mother.
2: The person who doesn't like that my great-great grandfathers date of birth varies by 2 years depending on which record you believe and keeps deleting his info thereby erasing his entire line. I have 16 documents proving he is who I say he is and the difference in dates is between a doctors ledger of his birth and a baptismal certificate. A minor issue but he's continually deleted.
3: This one is the strangest one but I've heard other people have run into similar issues. There is a person who doesn't like that one of our family trees goes back to a King that she feels was unchristian and doesn't want him in her line. So she keeps deleting the whole line.
I've read about people who have said they've had lines erased because others don't want anyone who has been divorced in there line.
It's an ok site to find info but it's much better to use it as a resource and build your own tree through a different site.
Tip for consumers:
Probably not worth the money.
Please do not enter or try to update your family tree on Family Search. Anyone can enter conflicting information you have uploaded, even though they may not have any relationship to the family members or may not know anything about them. There are countless errors in my tree entered by others, There is only certain information that can be changed. Once the other erroneous information is there, you can't change it or delete it. Also, it's very difficult to navigate the website. I scheduled a 20 minute chat with Family Search and the information given to me was incorrect on how to upload a file. I called the help phone number and the directions given to me was completely opposite from the original. Don't waste your time. Use Ancestry.com instead. That way you have total control over your tree.
I submitted my family tree long ago to the familysearch.com website and returned recently to see much of my accurate information wrongly changed by people who aren't even on my family tree. (I've been researching for 40 years and alive when many of the people on my tree were also alive.) I'm not talking about small changes either. People are being given the wrong parentage. I'm able to change it back, but there have been a few unrelated people who keep changing the information and will do it again. The site is GREAT for gathering records for free, but their family tree system is horribly flawed. People who use one source for information changes and do not look at all the information available as a whole are the problem. (Especially where illegitimate and adopted children are involved.) I'm also seeing people on Ancestry importing this same wrong information to their Ancestry trees. This is really frustrating when you need other trees to be accurate for Ancestry's DNA ThruLines. So, if you're looking for records, definitely use the site. But adding a tree or using the information from FamilySearch's user-submitted trees should be a hard pass. Also, keep in mind, that once you add tree information to their site, you cannot delete it.
Tip for consumers:
Use the records but skip the user-submitted trees.
Products used:
Research records.
I agree with another reviewer, random people can change your ancestors without any real sources. You have to "watch" most ancestors and get a notice when someone has changed some info.
Recently I am unable to see anything about anybody. The pages are all blank. No page for each person.
Strange as it took me awhile to build tree.
Got all excited when my tree went on and on, all by itself and led to Knights, Ladies, Princes, and even a King. Should have known these are not my ancestors. When I went back to look, it had disappeared and I realized it was all a fraud. How can FS allow this to happen? I have my tree on here and now am thinking I should just quit the whole thing.
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